Del Rosso kicks game up a notch

Varsity the Weekly - Catching up with . . .

If Jason Del Rosso continues to play golf the way his collegiate career has started, he will force Fordham University to rewrite its record book completely.

In his first four college tournaments, he has set three school records -- one for the lowest score for a round, one for the lowest two-round total and the other for the best three-round total.

It has been an impressive start to his freshman season for the former MVP of Bishop Moore's golf team.

"I am happy to be playing as well as I am individually, but as satisfying as the individual accolades are, how the team is playing is what is really important to me," Del Rosso said from Fordham's Bronx campus.

Del Rosso, 18, set the school records when he shot a 4-under-par 67 and then a 36-hole total of 139, both at the Dartmouth Invitational. His third school record came this past weekend for his 54-hole total of 215 (rounds of 70-74-71) at Yale University's MacDonald Cup.

He also is the first Fordham golfer to earn two weekly Atlantic 10 Conference awards during the same season.

Del Rosso's start to this season surprised him.

"During the summer, I played in a couple of junior tournaments and played reasonably well, but the final two weeks leading up to me leaving and coming up here, things just weren't clicking right," said Del Rosso, who is set to compete with his teammates this weekend in the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division I Golf Championship in Egg Harbor, N.J.

"It wasn't like I was playing horrible. It just wasn't how I imagined I would be playing."

Del Rosso was about 7 years old when he first started to show an interest in golf. He remembers watching the 1998 Masters tournament on television with his grandfather and becoming fascinated with the sport. His grandfather took him to Kmart and bought him his first set of clubs, and a love affair began.

"Before that, I had never even heard of golf," he said.

But, as Del Rosso learned more about golf, he became intrigued.

"I definitely like challenging myself against the course," he said.

"Although I love the team aspect of high school and college golf, I really like it because it is a sport where I am fully in charge of the shots that I hit."